Around the Year in 52 Books discussion
2022 Plans
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Hannah's Year of Rest and Relaxation
1. A book with a main character whose name starts with A, T, or YDetransition, Baby by Torrey Peters ✭✭✭✭
2. A book connected to a book you read in 2021
The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen: Passing, Quicksand, and the Stories by Nella Larsen ✭✭✭✭
3. A book with 22 or more letters in the title
We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver ✭✭✭
4. A book that fits your favorite prompt that did not make the list
Dawn by Octavia Butler ✭✭✭✭
5. A book by an author with two sets of double letters in their name
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett ✭✭✭✭
6. A book with an image of a source of light on the cover
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro ✭✭✭✭✭
7. A book related to psychology, neuroscience or the mind
Thinking in Systems: A Primer by Donella H. Meadows ✭✭✭✭
8. 3 books set on three different continents - Book 1
Salt Houses by Hala Alyan ✭✭✭✭
9. 3 books set on three different continents - Book 2
Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro ✭✭✭✭
10. 3 books set on three different continents - Book 3
The Door by Magda Szabó ✭✭✭✭✭
11. A book from historical fiction genre
Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers ✭✭✭✭
12. A book related to glass
Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger ✭✭✭✭✭
13. A book about a woman in STEM
Middlegame by Seanan McGuire ✭✭
14. A book with fewer than 5000 ratings on Goodreads
Walks Away Woman by Ki Longfellow ✭✭✭✭
15. A book without a person on the cover
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett ✭✭✭✭
16. A book related to Earth Day
Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert ✭✭✭✭✭
17. A book from NPR's Book Concierge
Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner ✭✭✭✭
18. A book by an Asian or Pacific Islander author
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu ✭✭✭
19. A book that involves alternate reality, alternate worlds, or alternate history
The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson ✭✭✭
20. A fiction or nonfiction book that is set during 1900 -1951
Atonement by Ian McEwan ✭✭
21. A book with one of the Monopoly tokens on the cover
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie ✭✭✭✭
22. A book with a Jewish character or author
Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart ✭✭✭✭
23. A book that features loving LGBTQIA+ relationship
The Archive of Alternate Endings by Lindsey Drager ✭✭✭
24. A book related to inclement weather
The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin ✭✭✭
25. A book less than 220 pages OR more than 440 pages
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens ✭✭✭✭
26. 2 books with the same word in the title - Book 1
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado ✭✭✭✭✭
27. 2 books with the same word in the title - Book 2
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende ✭✭✭
28. A book that won an award from Powell's list of book awards
Severance by Ling Ma ✭✭✭✭
29. A book set on or near a body of water
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman ✭✭✭
30. A book related to mythology
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr ✭✭✭✭
31. A book published at least 10 years ago
Embassytown by China Miéville ✭✭✭✭✭
32. A book where the main character is a female detective/private eye/police officer
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith ✭
33. The next book in a series
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante ✭✭✭✭
34. A book with an academic setting or with a teacher that plays an important role
Beanstalk: The Adventures of a Jack of All Tales by E. Jade Lomax ✭✭✭
35. 2 books related to flora and fauna - Book 1
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczak ✭✭✭✭
36. 2 books related to flora and fauna - Book 2
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer ✭✭✭
37. A book that uses all five vowels in the title and/or author's name
The Word for World Is Forest by Ursula Le Guin ✭✭✭✭
38. A book by a Latin American author
Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat ✭✭✭
39. A book from the TIME list of 100 Best YA Books of All Time
Scythe by Neal Shusterman ✭✭✭
40. A book related to one of the 22 Tarot Major Arcana cards
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell ✭✭
41. A book with a theme of food or drink
The Vegetarian by Han Kang ✭✭✭
42. A book with a language or nationality in the title
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami ✭✭✭
43. A book set in a small town or rural area
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent ✭✭✭✭
44. A book with gothic elements
Dracula by Bram Stoker ✭✭✭✭
45. A book related to a game
Beartown by Fredrik Backman ✭✭✭
46. A book with a non-human as one of the main characters
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers ✭✭✭✭✭
47. A book with handwriting on the cover
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid ✭✭✭✭
48. A book posted in one of the ATY Best Book of the Month threads in 2021 or 2022
The Overstory by Richard Powers ✭✭
49. A book connected to the phrase "Here (There) Be Dragons"
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell ✭✭✭✭✭
50. A book that involves aging, or a character in their golden years
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa ✭✭✭
51. A book published in 2022
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu ✭✭✭✭
52. A book with a time-related word in the title
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams ✭✭✭
The StoryGraph Reads the World 2022
For this challenge, the goal is to read a book set in the country, by an author from that country. For my purposes, I'll count books that are by authors who are part of that country's diaspora and I'll count books that are only partly set in that country. These prompts can and likely will overlap with the ATY challenge.
1. Brazil
2. Haiti
Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat
3. India
4. New Zealand
5. Palestine
Salt Houses by Hala Alyan
6. Russia
7. South Korea
The Vegetarian by Han Kang
8. Turkey
9. Vietnam
10. Zimbabwe
The StoryGraph’s Genre Challenge 2022
Just for fun, I won't be pushing to finish this one if I end up in a time crunch!
1. A romance novel by a Black author
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
2. An essay collection by a new-to-you author
3. A classic by an author of color
The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen: Passing, Quicksand, and the Stories by Nella Larsen
4. A memoir or autobiography by a trans/non-binary author
5. A play published after 1980
6. A non-fiction book about nature
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
7. A cosy mystery novel
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
8. A true crime book by a woman
9. A contemporary or literary fiction novel by an Indigenous author
10. A non-fiction book about politics outside of your home country
Book 1: The Housekeeper and the Professor 02/25/2022ATY Prompt: #50. A book that involves aging, or a character in their golden years
Rating: ✭✭✭
We're kicking off this year with a book I kept meaning to use for various prompts last year (Warwick Prize, Are You Well Read list, title refers to characters without their names), but it kept being pushed off in favor of something else. I've really been enjoying a lot of the translated fiction I've been reading lately and the last book by a Japanese author I loved. But this one underwhelmed me a bit. It's not that I didn't like it, it's just that memory and math are some of my favorite topics, so I had high expectations. I did think this book struck an excellent balance between sweetness and sadness.
This was a good choice for the aging character prompt, I thought. Most of the conflict in the book comes from the professor's disability, but I do think it's implied that his memory problems getting worse is at least partly due to him aging, and certainly that it is becoming harder for him to care for himself.
Book 2: Klara and the Sun 03/01/2022ATY Prompt: #6. A book with an image of a source of light on the cover
Rating: ✭✭✭✭✭
I really liked this! Reading Klara and the Sun reminded me of what I liked so much about Piranesi, both of which take me back to a reading experience I think I discovered with The Giver and have been chasing ever since: being dropped into a strange and slightly eerie world and discovering piece by piece what its secrets are.
I'm very pleased to use this book for the light on the cover prompt, as the light on the cover is a particularly important thematic element of the book. Klara's relationship to the sun is explored in great detail in this story and I just love when I can use a cover or title prompt to draw out an important element of the book.
Book 3: In the Dream House 03/04/2022ATY Prompt: #26. 2 books with the same word in the title - Book 1
Rating: ✭✭✭✭✭
I truly do not have the words to describe how I felt about this memoir. All I can say is that at one point while I was reading it, I felt the temptation to recalibrate some of my previous five star reviews - like, this book has reset the grading curve. I probably won't do that, but I did genuinely feel like this book was not only a masterpiece but also extremely well-suited for my taste and background and interests and I already kind of want to read it again, or at least buy a physical copy so I can write in it.
There are so many prompts I could fill with this - Latin American author is an obvious one, but it would be incredibly perfectly suited for a book with gothic elements or a book related to mythology. But I've decided to put it in this two part title prompt, for one serendipitous reason: I happened by chance to have checked out The House of the Spirits from the library with this book, not even thinking about the shared word, but I would just love to read them back to back to fill these prompts. In the Dream House talks about the concept of the house as a metaphor in an extremely fascinating way and that makes me want to highlight the "house" in the title.
Book 4: The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories 03/15/2022ATY Prompt: #18. A book by an Asian or Pacific Islander author
Rating: ✭✭✭
I actually started this book quite awhile ago, sometime last year. I picked it up because I had heard it compared with works by Ted Chiang, who also writes sci fi short stories (I read and absolutely adored Exhalation in 2020). But I didn't really love it and put it down, with the idea that maybe with some more distance from Ted Chiang, I might like it better. Unfortunately, that didn't really happen - there were certainly stories I liked in here, and I often liked the premise and purpose of Ken Liu's writing, but a lot of the stories didn't land quite right for me. I think that one major piece of it is that I found Ted Chiang's stories to be quite optimistic and hopeful about humanity and I thought that the comparison I had heard between the two authors was because these stories would be similarly optimistic. They are really not though, on the whole - I would say that the theme of this collection is something more like "we must not forget the suffering we have caused to each other." Even when the tales are more hopeful, they are often still hopeful in a sad kind of way (i.e. "there will always be people willing to sacrifice their lives for the good of humanity.")
I debated a lot about where to put this one. Part of me leaned heavily towards the mythology prompt, since several of these stories have a strong mythology theme. But not all of them do, so I decided to go with Asian/Pacific Islander author instead, since Ken Liu was born in China and nearly all these stories explore various Asian cultures, history, folklore, diaspora, etc. I'm a little worried about filling this prompt so early, considering that lately I've been reading a lot of books by Asian authors (in fact, so far 3/4 of what I've read for the challenge are by authors of Asian descent), and I already have several more that I'm intending on reading this year. But for the moment, I think this is the best place.
Book 5: The House of the Spirits 03/16/2022ATY Prompt: #27. 2 books with the same word in the title - Book 2
Rating: ✭✭✭ (3.5)
I'm really glad I chose to read this one paired with In the Dream House! I've had this experience a couple of times with multi-week prompts, where pairing them for the purpose of the challenge made me think about the themes of the books as a pair, which I've had a lot of fun with. In the Dream House and The House of the Spirits are not really books you'd think to compare - one is a contemporary memoir set in America and the other is historical magical realism set in Chile. But they do have several similarities: they're both written by female Latin American authors, they both feature as a central element of the story an abusive relationship, and, of course, they both are focused on a house - in fact, they're both focused on a haunted house, in a way.
I did enjoy reading this book, but it did make me finally realize something: I don't think I love multi-generational family sagas! I thought I did, and I do like stories that have big messy ensemble casts, like Anna Karenina, but I'm not sure I really like it very much when the book covers so much time and the characters you begin with end up fading to the background or dying partway through the book. It worked for me in One Hundred Years of Solitude, but that book is so strange and circular that it's not really the same. But in both this one and Pachinko, even though I thought the writing was beautiful and the story compelling, I just can't get as immersed as I would like to.
Book 6: Equal Rites 03/24/2022ATY Prompt: #5. A book by an author with two sets of double letters in their name
Rating: ✭✭✭✭
Terry Pratchett is a gem. So far, I have read a book by him for every ATY Challenge that I have participated in. Considering that the very first prompt I used him for was "author with A, T, and Y in their name," it feels right to be using Equal Rites for another author name prompt (I guess Terry Pratchett is just a uniquely "prompt-able" name!). Equal Rites is the third Discworld book I've read so far and I think it may be my favorite at the moment. It was a great balance between parody and its own story, the characters were fun, the worldbuilding is always a delight and it made me laugh out loud several times. Can't go wrong!
Book 7: The Word for World Is Forest 03/28/2022ATY Prompt: #37. A book that uses all five vowels in the title and/or author's name
Rating: ✭✭✭✭
Ursula Le Guin is one of my top favorite authors, having written two of my favorite books: The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed. This has made me really really want to read more of her work, but also to be a bit nervous about it, because how could shorter fiction possibly live up to those two stunningly complex, deep novels? Luckily, The Word for World is Forest (what a name!) did not disappoint me at all, though I'm still going to save my five star rating for my top favorites. I am endlessly impressed by Le Guin's ability to slowly draw me into the intimacy of her work, and the deft, subtle way she makes her philosophical points. I love this author and I'm pleased to use a prompt that highlights both her lovely name and this fantastic title.
Book 8: Beanstalk: The Adventures of a Jack of All Tales 03/28/2022ATY Prompt: #34. A book with an academic setting or with a teacher that plays an important role
Rating: ✭✭✭
I wanted to like this a bit more than I did - this is a very sweet self-published book about a group of students at a fantasy academy for training heroes to fight monsters. The academic setting is very important for the story, so I thought it would be a good fit here (though none of the teachers are all that central - the main characters spend a lot of their time engaging in "extracurricular" pursuits). The writing and pacing was a bit uneven, though, which is understandable as I think the author was a teenager when she wrote it.
Book 9: Small Pleasures 04/01/2022ATY Prompt:
#11. A book from historical fiction genre
Rating: ✭✭✭✭
I don't typically pick up books due to their covers (I mostly hear about books here or in other contexts where I'm seeing/hearing the title first, and since I read mostly ebooks, sometimes I kind of miss the covers altogether). But this one, I heard about because of the Women's Prize and reading/watching a lot of content related to that, and I have to admit that I think I mostly put Small Pleasures on my TBR because of how stunningly beautiful I found the cover.
I quite enjoyed this book, all in all, considering I knew so little about it. It reminded me of The Dutch House (another great cover), except very British, and I thought the writing was gorgeous. I also found it very pleasant to read, in a lovely slow-paced way.
Book 10: The Vegetarian 4/6/2022ATY Prompt: #41. A book with a theme of food or drink
StoryGraph Reads the World Prompt: #7. South Korea
Rating: ✭✭✭ (3.5)
The Vegetarian was a reread for me, from 2017 (I debated whether or not I wanted to use it for ATY, as I do have a copy of The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals that I've been meaning to get to, which would be great for this prompt, but I'm going with it for now at least.) I think the first time I read it, it was compelling but a bit too weird for me, while this time I knew what to expect but took it at a much slower pace. I enjoyed it a bit more, though I still find the language a bit awkward in places (it being hard to tell what certain pronouns are referring to, for example, or where characters are in a room) and I'm not sure if it's the author or the translator at fault. But the main compliment I want to give this book is that it's clearly stuck with me for the past five years and it was well worth giving a second read.
Book 11: Salt Houses 4/14/2022ATY Prompt: #8. 3 books set on three different continents - Book 1
StoryGraph Reads the World Prompt: #5. Palestine
Rating: ✭✭✭✭
I picked up Salt Houses because I needed a book to fill the Palestine prompt in my StoryGraph challenge and it called to me from one of the many list articles I read. I'm really glad I chose it as it was a beautiful and heartbreaking story, superbly written. I felt like the author had such a good grasp on which tiny details to share about the characters and family life, which really brought them alive. My one complaint is that I still don't love multi-generational family sagas! I felt like this story could have been just a bit tighter and smaller in scope, as I felt certain plot elements were dropped instead of being wrapped up in a satisfying way.
I think this book is a perfect fit for the setting prompt, since it is very localized in the middle east, but the chapters span several different cities and countries: Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Kuwait, and Lebanon are all quite significant to the story. The story closely follow many historical and political events that happened in this region, especially conflict, but it also does a wonderful job of capturing the feeling of these cities the characters live in, both from the perspectives of the characters who live there resentfully, missing their home, and their children, who think of the new city as home.
Book 12: Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead 04/17/2022ATY Prompt: #35. 2 books related to flora and fauna - Book 1
Rating: ✭✭✭✭
Wow, this book was something else. It took me a little while to get into it - the astrology and the capitalization gave me slight pause but I was willing to wait patiently while things took shape over the first 100 or so pages. By 2/3 of the way in, though, I was entranced and couldn't put it down.
I originally anticipated using this for the ATY Best Book of the Month prompt, since I remembered seeing it on there at some point. But that was before realizing how prominently animals and animal rights feature in this book. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to use it for "fauna" - especially because I had thought before about how it would be fun to pair a fiction book about fauna with a nonfiction book about flora for that set of prompts. This book would also have worked quite well for the "rural setting or small town" prompt, that was also a heavy focus of this story.
Book 13: The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen: Passing, Quicksand, and the Stories 04/27/2022ATY Prompt: #2. A book connected to a book you read in 2021
StoryGraph Genre Prompt: #3. A classic by an author of color
Rating: ✭✭✭✭ (3.5)
This is one of my favorite prompts, because over the past few years, I've started keeping track of what inspired me to add books to my TBR. And reading books for ATY is something that often inspires me! Not for every book, or even most, but every so often I'll be reading the reviews of a book after I've finished it and take note of books that people reference in their reviews as being similar or connected and I pop them on my TBR. This is what happened when I read The Vanishing Half last year, a book I had mixed feeling about. I read that it was inspired by Nella Larsen's Passing and so decided I should give that a try as well. I'm glad I did - Passing was focused more on the themes and tensions that I found most interesting and had wished that The Vanishing Half had stuck to more. I happened to find Passing in this set of other novellas and short stories by Nella Larsen, so I read the rest of them, too. I'm glad I did, though I definitely preferred Passing to the others.
Book 14: The Sparrow 05/05/2022ATY Prompt: #49. A book connected to the phrase "Here (There) Be Dragons"
Rating: ✭✭✭✭✭
I've been meaning to read The Sparrow for many years - it's one of those books that just kept appearing in my life in different ways. Mentioned in the ATY group, quoted by people whose writing I like, recommended to me on the Storygraph (which I absolutely trust to know my taste at this point). So I knew this was going to be the year I finally got to it. And how pleased I am to have enjoyed it so very much and to have found it so compelling and thoughtful.
I originally anticipated that I would use the "reject prompt" prompt for this one, as I really hoped that my "first contact" suggestion would make it onto the list. However, after reading it, I realized that it would fit in several other places as well (I also considered using it for the Jewish author/character prompt - Mary Doria Russell converted to Judaism several years before writing this book and although most of the characters are Catholics/Jesuits, there is one quite prominent Jewish character), but I'm quite satisfied with putting it here instead. For one thing, that gives me an excuse to read another first contact book later (one of my favorite sci-fi tropes), but also I think this prompt really captures the spirit of this book, about uncharted territory that might be inhabited by great and terrible, noble and dangerous creatures.
Book 15: Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants 05/12/2022ATY Prompt: #36. 2 books related to flora and fauna - Book 2
Storygraph Genre Prompt: #6. A non-fiction book about nature
Rating: ✭✭✭
It actually took me a bit to get fully into this one - I didn't realize before reading it how very memoir-y it is (and I think the beginning is especially, I found the latter half of the book more balanced, or perhaps I was just used to it at that point) and I am a little picky about my memoirs. But I settled into it, reading it in small segments as I read other things alongside it, and I did end up finding it quite compelling and personally meaningful. Kimmerer's writing style is not always exactly to my taste and I was definitely hoping for some more practical guidance for systemic change (Kimmerer leans a bit towards the individual/spiritual), but I really appreciated her message about fighting against the mindset that humans are a blight on the earth who would do best to just leave things alone, a mindset I do find to be quite common and damaging.
This would probably work almost equally well for flora or fauna, but I'm choosing to have it represent flora (which I think ties nicely with the emphasis on sweetgrass, as well as the concept that plants are the oldest and therefore most knowledgeable species, an idea I quite liked).
Book 16: Atonement 05/13/2022ATY Prompt: #20. A fiction or nonfiction book that is set during 1900-1951
Rating: ✭✭
I had really mixed feelings about this book - this is a true middle-of-the-road, some elements were five stars, some were one star kind of rating. I found the beginning very atmospheric and engaging, the middle quite boring, and the end interesting again. I did appreciate the "meta" elements of the story about writing and how people create stories out of there own lives, but I also found a lot of the characters' actions to be extremely baffling (outside of Briony's, which I felt like were well conceived of and explained) and certain elements of the plot quite distasteful, or perhaps used in a distasteful way. It was a strange experience reading it, my feelings about it were really all over the place.
I'm pleased to be able to use this for the set between 1900 and 1951 prompt, because so much of the historical fiction I've been reading lately has been duel timeline stuff, with only part of the story set in the past, which I didn't want for that particular prompt. I think this was a good fit, since the story spanned quite a bit of time in the 30s and 40s.
Book 17: Middlegame 05/25/2022ATY Prompt: #13. A book about a woman in STEM
Rating: ✭✭
I should have expected this one wouldn't be for me - I quite enjoyed the other Seanan McGuire book I read (Every Heart a Doorway), but even that one I felt like the plot and dialogue were not my favorite, I just loved the worldbuilding so much. I felt the same way about this one, but it's so much longer that it was less forgivable that I struggled so much with the writing style and plot, even though there were elements of it I thought were really cool.
"Woman in STEM" is a bit of a creative interpretation here, but too good to pass up: one of the main characters in this book is the physical embodiment of mathematics and I liked the idea of her being a "woman in STEM." (To be fair, she does spend most of the book as a grad student studying chaos and game theory, so it fits in a more literal sense as well.) It would have also fit for several other prompts, including the "alternate reality" one, "academic setting," "handwriting on the cover," and maybe "related to a game."
Book 18: A Closed and Common Orbit 05/30/2022ATY Prompt: #46. A book with a non-human as one of the main characters
Rating: ✭✭✭✭✭
What a joy to return to Becky Chambers' lovely, comfortable world! I really wanted to make an effort this year to actually return to authors/series that I've enjoyed in the past, since I noticed that the ATY challenge often leads me to trying lots of new authors (which is great too, but I like to have some balance!) And I'm really glad I did, because I think I actually liked this one better than The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. I really liked the duel timeline approach in this book, and Chambers' choices to leave it up to the reader to fill in some of the empty spaces and draw the parallels between the characters. As always, I love the anthropological take these books have, with the characters always so interested to learn about the alien species and cultures surrounding them.
This was the perfect book to use for the non-human prompt, as the main character is an A.I. currently inhabiting a human body. Her identity as not-a-human is a very important theme of the story and one I found to be very interesting and thoughtfully engaged with. There are several other alien characters as well, plus some genetically modified humans.
Book 19: Detransition, Baby 06/05/2022ATY Prompt: #1. A book with a main character whose name starts with A, T, or Y
Rating: ✭✭✭✭
I've been having really good luck with the Women's Prize nominees of last year, which I am only just now getting to, of course. They keep landing in the high-four-star category for me, which typically means books that I highly enjoy, just have some small qualm with, or which don't quite feel like they're as perfectly suited for me as five star books. I found Detransition, Baby to be so compellingly written, I just tore through it. The characters were flawed, messy, and fascinating, balancing on a perfect edge of being uncomfortable and yet still sympathetic. Getting to see the nuance of Reese and Ames' struggles with gender, both internally and externally, was very interesting to me (a lot reminded me of videos made by Natalie Wynn/Contrapoints, which I love) and frequently quite relatable, even as a cis woman.
I spent the whole book wondering if it would work for the loving LGBTQIA relationship prompt, and ultimately decided against it. I do think it could be argued either way, because I'm not trying to say that the characters in this book are not genuinely loving towards each other, but so much of the book focuses either on relationships that are not loving (Reese's affairs) or on the dysfunctional parts of loving relationships (I believe that both Reese/Amy and Ames/Katrina have loving relationships, but the parts that we actually get to see are a lot about relationships that are failing in various ways.). So I went with prompt number one instead, for Amy/Ames. I ended up liking this decision after all, because I thought the choice to refer to the character as either Amy or Ames depending on the moment in the story was a very effective and interesting one.
Book 20: Norwegian Wood 06/27/2022ATY Prompt: 42. A book with a language or nationality in the title
Rating: ✭✭✭
This is my second book by Murakami (I have previously read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle) and I'm beginning to suspect I might end up with a very consistent 3-star opinion about his work. On the one hand, there is something very compelling about the atmospheres of his books, something that makes me want to reread them even when I'm not sure if I even liked them. On the other hand, they kind of leave me feeling cold. The characters are compelling but distant, the plot is intriguing but meandering, the themes are interesting but often depressing.
I know as well that Murakami is frequently criticized by his portrayal of women, and that's something that particularly stood out to me in this book. The actions and characterizations of the female characters and certain plotlines related to them are often odd and feel contrived for the sake of the male protagonist and/or the story. But again, I did really enjoy the writing style and the atmosphere, so three stars it is.
I picked this up for the purpose of using it for the language/nationality prompt - it was one of the first books that came to mind. Of course, the funny thing is that the "Norwegian Wood" in the title is a reference to the Beatles song, which in itself is not about Norway or wood or Norwegian wood at all. Like the rest of the book, the title is for atmospheric reasons only.
Book 21: Embassytown 07/13/2022ATY Prompt: #31. A book published at least 10 years ago
Rating: ✭✭✭✭✭
Science fiction stories about the intricacies of language are kind of my niche. You'd think at this point it would be hard to really wow me, but this book was like nothing I've ever read. The ideas here about language and the self were so intriguing to me and the way that Miéville plays with language were so enjoyable. This is not an easy book to read, exactly, but for me it was well worth it.
Embassytown squeaks in just under the wire in regard to this prompt, as it was published in 2011. But it's the only place I could find to fit it, and I do read plenty of books from more than 10 years ago on a regular basis.
Book 21: The Story of a New Name 07/22/2022ATY Prompt: #33. The next book in a series
Rating: ✭✭✭✭
I read the first Neapolitan Novel last year and had a very interesting reaction to it: it took me about half the book to really get it, but once I did, I loved it. With this one, I had a bit of the opposite experience. I went into it having a much better idea of what to expect, absolutely loved the first 3/4 of the book, and then felt like things trailed off in the last quarter (probably because with Elena in Pisa, the plot felt a bit more fractured and there wasn't as much detail about the relationships between the characters, typically my favorite thing about these books.) Nevertheless, I enjoyed the experience of reading this tremendously.
I don't read series books very often anymore, which I'm a bit sad about - fantasy series were such a big part of my childhood reading and something I really loved. I'm not sure why they've fallen out of favor with me, but reading this book reminded me of what I like about them: being able to jump into a whole book already attached to the characters and excited to see what will happen to them next.
Book 23: We Need to Talk About Kevin 07/29/2022ATY Prompt: #3. A book with 22 or more letters in the title
Rating: ✭✭
I had pretty mixed feelings about this book. Psychological thrillers tend to not be my thing, but I was sick with COVID and needed something compelling. I would definitely describe this book as compelling, and I'll admit that it made me think - the ambiguity as to who's really at fault/what kind of story this is is interesting. But on the other hand, I really didn't like the writing style and once I read more about Lionel Shriver, I lost a lot of respect for her as an author.
We Need to Talk About Kevin is exactly 22 letters long, exactly the kind of title I wanted to fill this prompt.
Book 24: The Ocean at the End of the Lane 08/08/2022ATY Prompt: #29. A book set on or near a body of water
Rating: ✭✭✭
The Ocean at the End of the Lane has been on my TBR for a long time - in fact, it's really quite surprising that this is my first Neil Gaiman book and that it's coming so late. I just wish I had liked it a little more! On the surface, it seems like my kind of thing. I like dreamy magical realism and I like fairytales and children's stories. And it's not that I didn't like this, it just was only a surface level liking and I expected to love it more.
I chose this book for the body of water prompt for obvious reasons: the ocean (or pond) at the end of the lane is a crucial element to the story, both in terms of setting and symbolically.
Book 25: Super Sad True Love Story 08/12/2022ATY Prompt: #22. A book with a Jewish character or author
Rating: ✭✭✭✭
This book was recommended to me several years ago by my mother, who heard Gary Shteyngart talk about it on NPR. I knew very little about it besides that, except for the fact that it doesn't have a particularly strong goodreads rating. Points to my mom! This book was so weird and so compelling, I really enjoyed it.
Gary Shteyngart is Jewish, the child of immigrant Russian parents, and Lenny Abramov, the main character of Super Sad True Love Story is also Jewish and the child of immigrant Russian parents. This identity was pretty important to the book, so I'm pleased with my choice.
Book 26: Beartown 08/15/2022ATY Prompt: #45. A book related to a game
Rating: ✭✭✭
This is my third Fredrik Backman, after first A Man Called Ove and then Anxious People. I've given all of them three stars, so I think I'm probably going to be done with Backman for now, at least. But I have felt differently about each book I've read. Beartown was probably my second favorite and I did really appreciate a lot of the ideas in this book, I just think that Backman's writing style doesn't fully work for me.
I really wasn't sure what I was going to choose for this game prompt, so it was very lucky that I happened to come across a free copy of Beartown in my library's giveaway bin. Sports are not really my thing and I can't say I've ever watched more than a few minutes of hockey, so it was fun to learn about something new. And the game is such a major, major element of this story.
Book 27: Dawn 08/22/2022ATY Prompt: #4. A book that fits your favorite prompt that did not make the list
Rating: ✭✭✭✭ (3.5)
As I've said before, perhaps my favorite subgenre of fiction is "first contact" sci fi stories. First Contact refers to a popular theme of science fiction, the first meeting of human beings with an alien species. What happens then can vary wildly: the alien can be a vicious monster, a vulnerable friend, a potential equal, or a powerful being. In this story, the aliens are powerful, having rescued the remaining humans from a nearly destroyed earth. What's less clear is whether they're friends or enemies. I found this premise to be absolutely fascinating, definitely my favorite by far of the Octavia Butler that I've read. But, unfortunately, there's still just something about Butler's writing style that doesn't quite work for me.
Last year, I submitted a "First Contact" prompt, which unsurprisingly, did not make it in, despite my attempts to make it sound like you wouldn't only have to read science fiction. :P But that's why we love the reject prompt! I was super glad I got to read this first contact book for a first contact prompt anyway.
Book 28: Hamnet 08/28/2022ATY Prompt: #40. A book related to one of the 22 Tarot Major Arcana cards
Rating: ✭✭
This was a surprise disappointment - I really expected Hamnet to be just my kind of thing (Character driven historical fiction! Shakespeare! Family dynamics!) and it just didn't work for me. I didn't jive with the writing style at all, found many elements gimmicky or stereotypical, and in general felt much more distance from the characters and story than I hoped to.
I had originally thought I would use Hamnet for the historical fiction prompt (I liked the idea of using a book NOT set during the 20th century, as I feel a lot of historical fiction that I read is), but it occurred to me that this book works kind of perfectly for the Tarot prompt instead, which I had been kind of struggling with anyway. Agnes, the main character in this book, really represents the High Priestess archetype, as a woman whose power is located in her intuition and subconscious mind. And of course, death (even death personified) is a major element in the story as well.
Book 29: Cloud Cuckoo Land 09/10/2022ATY Prompt: #30. A book related to mythology
Rating: ✭✭✭✭ (3.5)
I really enjoyed All the Light We Cannot See, so I was eager to check out Anthony Doerr's next book. I'm also a big fan of cross-genre historical/science fiction stuff, so it seemed like an easy win. And I did really like lots of elements of it! I actually LOVED certain parts of it (I studied Ancient Greek in college and the translating elements of this book were such a delight to me), especially the second half of the book. But...the first half dragged a bit for me and the tone occasionally drifted into being a bit too twee and sentimental for my taste. So even though a solid chunk of this book read like a five star book to me, I'm going to have to settle on a bit lower of a rating.
I thought I was going to use this book for "over 440 pages," but I ended up choosing "related to mythology" instead. It just was such a key piece of this book, the Ancient Greek manuscript about the mythological city of Cloud Cuckoo Land, and the characters discuss the concept of "mythos" several times throughout the book, as a story that might be both true and false at the same time.
Book 30: Nine Stories 09/25/2022ATY Prompt: #12. A book related to glass
Rating: ✭✭✭✭✭ (4.5)
This was a reread for me - apparently I first read Nine Stories in 2017 and I remember being absolutely blown away by them. I own a copy that I bought once in a very cute bookstore, so I had been meaning to get around to reading them again. It was a great idea. I remembered some stories quite well and others not at all. In general, I remembered the strong and mysterious atmosphere that all these stories have and was pleased to discover that I could sink right back into that atmosphere on the reread.
The prompt fulfillment here is a little bit creative, possibly bordering on cheating. Three of the stories in this collection feature characters who are part of the Glass family, a fictional family that Salinger wrote several stories and novellas about.
Book 31: Seven Days in June 09/28/2022ATY Prompt: #52. A book with a time-related word in the title
StoryGraph Genre Prompt: #1. A romance novel by a Black author
Rating: ✭✭✭ (2.5)
I'm not a big romance reader, so I probably wouldn't have picked this one up if not for the StoryGraph genre prompt. And I basically had exactly the same opinion of it that I have of most of the romance novels I read, which is that they're fun and quick to read, but I rarely really enjoy them enough to give them more than three stars. For this one, I had some qualms with certain aspects of the story, but on the whole found the writing style good and compelling and I enjoyed the pop culture references and the look inside the book publishing scene.
This was a perfect book to use for the ATY prompt about a time-related word in the title. I think both "day" and "June" would count, plus the title as a whole describes a specific time of the year. The book itself was very focused on the idea of time, as it was entirely structured around two weeks: the eponymous seven days in June and another seven days in June 15 years earlier.
Book 32: Death on the Nile 10/4/2022ATY Prompt: #21. A book with one of the Monopoly tokens on the cover
StoryGraph Genre Prompt: #7. A cosy mystery novel
Rating: ✭✭✭✭
My third Agatha Christie, this one recommended to me directly by an ATY member after I said that I loved Murder on the Orient Express. I totally get the recommendation, as this had a lot of similar elements: getting to know a wide group of interesting characters, a "locked room" style mystery, (view spoiler). I had a great time reading it and truly felt cozy and like it was the perfect story for early October. Technically, I'm not 100% sure if this counts as a cozy mystery - doesn't the main character have to be an amateur detective? But it felt so cozy to read, I'm going to count it anyway.
I planned to use this book for the monopoly token prompt because of the striking default cover on Goodreads:
(I know, this is technically a different kind of hat, right? The monopoly token is a top hat!)
But then tragically my library copy turned up with the movie cover!
Just going to have to ignore that...
Book 33: Crying in H Mart 10/7/2022ATY Prompt: #17. A book from NPR's Book Concierge
Rating: ✭✭✭✭
I've been meaning to read this all year - there's been so much buzz around it and I had high hopes that I would enjoy it, having spent a fair bit of time in H Marts recently myself. I'm incredibly glad that I live in an area with lots of easy access to Korean food, because I don't know how else you'd make it through this book. So many luscious descriptions of food! I didn't get tired of it and I was touched by the connection between food and culture and family that Zauner drew. I think she did an especially impressive job of characterizing her mother and their relationship as a balance between love and struggle, miscommunications and perfect understandings.
I chose to use this book to fill the NPR Concierge prompt, and there's not too much to say about that. I had heard of this book before seeing it on that list, but I do think it fits the spirit of the NPR list quite well: it's the sort of book that I wanted to read just because I had heard so many other people read and enjoy it.
Book 34: Elena Knows 10/11/2022ATY Prompt: #9. 3 books set on three different continents - Book 2
Rating: ✭✭✭✭
This is one I only heard about recently, as it was on the shortlist for the International Booker Prize. I have tended to have pretty good luck with Booker Prize winners in general and this one caught my attention partly due to the plot (I was intrigued at the idea of reading from the perspective of a woman suffering from Parkinson's) and partly due to the setting (I have a "reading around the world" map and didn't have anything listed for Argentina). I'm glad I picked it up because I really enjoyed it. The primary tension in this story is not the mystery but the relentless fight between Elena's stubbornness and the limitations of her illness. It was very unique and a curious read.
As I mentioned, this book is set in Argentina, Buenos Aires specifically. The setting is quite important for cultural reasons (the Catholic church and the beliefs of the characters are central to the conflict here), though the city (besides the appearance of the streets and sidewalks) is not described in any great detail because Elena struggles so much to raise her head as she walks. Still, I like it set against Salt Houses, which I used as the first book in this multiweek prompt.
Book 35: Walks Away Woman 10/15/2022ATY Prompt: #14. A book with fewer than 5000 ratings on Goodreads
Rating: ✭✭✭✭
I cannot for the life of me figure out where I heard of this book, not for lack of effort. I've been keeping track of where I discover books I add to my TBR for over a year, and yet this one slipped through the cracks. It's a pity, because this seems to be a not-very-well-know-at-all book, and I loved it. Right from the start, Longfellow hooked me with her compelling, unique writing style, and even though it was very different from the kind of thing I usually read, I was really invested the whole time.
Walks Away Woman has 1,128 ratings on Goodreads as of now. I don't know anyone else who has read it and don't even know where I heard of it from. I actually love reading books like this, it feels like discovering such a gem!
Book 36: The Door 10/22/2022ATY Prompt: #10. 3 books set on three different continents - Book 3
Rating: ✭✭✭✭✭
It was one of my goals for this year to actually make an effort to read books by authors who I've already tried and enjoyed. I say it all the time when I read a book by a new author — "I'm definitely going to read more by this author!" — and then the new year rolls around with so many new authors to try and I forget to go back. But this year, I was trying to maximize the number of books I really enjoyed, so I thought it would be a good strategy — and I was so right! Katalin Street was an unexpected hit for me last year, but The Door was even better. Keeping the narrative focused so tightly on the relationship between two characters, with very little plot otherwise, makes this book feel almost claustrophobic, in an intense, mesmerizing kind of way. I've never read anything else like it.
This was my third continent book, which means I ended up with one set in the Middle East (Palestine/Jordan/Kuwait), one set in South America (Argentina), and this one, set in Europe (Hungary). If I had planned ahead, I probably would have chosen translated fiction for all three, but I don't regret reading Salt Houses, which was lovely and a perfect fit for this prompt in its own way. But I did enjoy reading Elena Knows and The Door as kind of companion books - they had a surprising amount in common. Both translated fiction by female authors, following an intense mother/daughter-esque relationship between two female characters. Both set in the capital city of their country. Both featuring an extraordinarily stubborn and self-assured older woman. Just a perfect pair!
Book 37: The Archive of Alternate Endings 10/27/2022ATY Prompt: #23. A book that features loving LGBTQIA+ relationship
Rating: ✭✭✭
Ah, this book. There were parts of it I liked so much, but I'm afraid in the end it was just a little too experimental/non-narrative for my taste. Individual chapters of this book were perfect for me, especially the first one, but as a whole it felt just a bit too fragmented (and I feel somewhat vindicated in this opinion because it seems as though Drager did write pieces of this book to be published separately and then pulled it all together for this novella.) The themes that Drager was exploring here are some of my favorites — storytelling, folktales, close relationships, repetition — so it's disappointing that it didn't hit me harder.
I originally picked up this book intending on using it for the alternate worlds/history prompt. And it would have fitted that, though not exactly in the way that I expected based on the title and what I knew about the book going into it - the alternateness was much more abstract than I really anticipated. But I didn't know that this book was going to be so much about the relationships between gay men and their families, with a particular emphasis on siblings who love and support their gay brothers, even when their parents turn their backs on them. It was such a powerful theme in this book that it seems a shame not to use it for the LGBTQ relationship prompt, and I like the idea of filling that prompt in a more unexpected way, by using a sibling relationship instead of a romantic one.
Book 38: Thinking in Systems: A Primer 10/28/2022ATY Prompt: #7. A book related to psychology, neuroscience or the mind
Rating: ✭✭✭✭
This was a very interesting book that really changed my perspective on how to look at the world. Part of the premise here is that "systems thinking" is a way of looking at practically anything, a method for revealing certain kinds of connections and goals that might otherwise be hidden to you. The fascinating thing is how applicable simply that very abstract perspective change (i.e. thinking of practically everything you encounter as a "system" of some kind) can be to absolutely everything. As I read this book, for example, I felt that Meadows' insights were useful to my personal life on all levels: obviously a workplace or school is like a system, but so is a family, a relationship, or even just your own mind or body.
That's why I think that this book fits the "psychology or the mind" prompt very well - although the book is largely describing political or corporate or industrial systems, what it's really focused around is about how humans think about those systems.
Book 39: Burial Rites 11/05/2022ATY Prompt: #43. A book set in a small town or rural area
Rating: ✭✭✭✭
Oddly, I went into this book with a mistaken impression of it and I'm not even sure why. I guess that for some reason, I had assumed that this was more of a mystery/thriller, and I didn't realize how much more significant the historical fiction aspect of this story was. Luckily for me, I like historical fiction more than thrillers! I think if I had had a better sense of what kind of book this is, I would have read it much sooner! I tend to really enjoy this type of very well researched historical fiction - it kind of reminded me of The Weight of Ink, though not in terms of plot at all. Like The Weight of Ink, it took me awhile to really get into the story, but I read the last third of it all in one go because I was so entranced. I was especially impressed by how well Kent conveyed emotion at the end of the story, though I understand why many readers found it too bleak.
I chose this book because I hoped it would fulfill the rural setting prompt and it certainly did. It was actually perfect for this kind of prompt, because there was a lot of detail in this story about what life in rural Iceland was like during this time period, and how isolating and bleak it can be was a major element of the story.
Book 40: Dracula 11/07/2022ATY Prompt: #44. A book with gothic elements
Rating: ✭✭✭✭
I had already read Dracula, in 2015 when my cousin lent me her beautiful copy of it (and I remember that it took me forever to get around to it and read it, even though I enjoyed it a lot!). I wasn't planning to reread it anytime particularly soon, but then earlier this year, I stumbled across Dracula Daily. I thought this concept was brilliant: Dracula takes place from May to November of one year and it's told in epistolary format, through letters the characters are sending each other, as well as diary entries and newspaper clippings. So the idea is that Dracula Daily sends you the entries in chronological order in real time. This was such a fun way to read this book that I totally got sucked into reading it again and just had a great time. It actually completely changed the reading experience in a lot of interesting ways.
Of course, it was easy to pick a prompt for this one - Dracula is pretty archetypal gothic fiction! I do feel a bit like I've cheated here, because I don't read a lot of gothic stuff and it would have been cool to push my comfort zone a bit, but instead I just went with something I've already read. But oh well!
Book 41: Krik? Krak! 11/08/2022ATY Prompt: #38. A book by a Latin American author
StoryGraph Reads the World Prompt: #2. Haiti
Rating: ✭✭✭
I chose this book for the StoryGraph prompt, because I realized that I knew absolutely nothing about Haitian literature and had no ideas for what to read (well, except for The Kingdom of This World, which I read in school). Krik? Krak! was an interesting read - a collection of short story that were somewhat interwoven, which I didn't realize when I chose it. I think I would have preferred a regular novel, because it's just hard for a whole collection of short stories to be winners! I did quite like some of the stories in this collection and found others to be a bit more forgettable.
It was an easy choice to pick this book for the Latin American author prompt as well. I keep track of the international authors and settings that I read and I've noticed that Latin America is the region I'm consistently the least familiar with. I'd like to make more of an effort to seek out options from this part of the world, especially books in translation.
Book 42: The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency 11/11/2022ATY Prompt: #32. A book where the main character is a female detective/private eye/police officer
Rating: ✭
Not for me at all! Historically, I have liked mystery novels that are not super mystery focused and I like slice-of-life, not-too-much-plot novels, but this did nothing for me. The story felt way too fractured, the "mysteries" were incredibly simplistic and easily solved, and the whole tone felt very dated - constantly talking about the main character's weight, about how simple life in Africa is, about whether ladies can be detectives or not, etc. I know that many people find this book cozy and heartwarming, and I'll admit that heartwarming books are often a miss for me, but it wasn't so much that this book felt too cheesy for me, it just felt like nothing.
I sought this one out specifically for the female detective prompt, as I knew I wasn't naturally going to stumble onto anything that fit, as I don't read a lot of mysteries. I wanted to make sure I chose a book where the woman was actually a professional detective, because I know there are lots of mystery stories about women where the woman is an amateur detective or just pulled into solving a one-off mystery that she's connected to in some way (like Elena Knows) and I didn't feel like that would really fit the prompt. At least I can rest assured that this book filled the prompt without a doubt, even though I disliked it.
Book 43: Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future 11/19/2022ATY Prompt: #16. A book related to Earth Day
Rating: ✭✭✭✭✭
Quite a few years ago, I read Elizabeth Kolbert's The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History and it was the nonfiction book that got me into reading nonfiction for pleasure. I was so fascinated and compelled by it for so many reasons, partly due to Kolbert's writing style, but also because the content felt so perfectly suited to my interests — natural history, really the history of the concepts of evolution and extinction, mixed with the biology and ecology, mixed with a kind of memoir-style account of the author's process researching the book. So I thought that I would like Under a White Sky, but I'll admit that I didn't think it would be as good as the first one — how could it be? But it was! Different enough to be new and fascinating, but with all the same style and execution that makes me love Kolbert's writing.
I had picked this out to be my Earth Day book and of course it works very well, being all about climate change and the relationship between humans and the earth. I thought Kolbert struck a particularly good tone for a book that really has the potential to be quite depressing. Not that it wasn't, but it kind of managed to be both a little inspiring and a little hopeful and a little tragic all at once.
Book 44: The Space Between Worlds 11/20/2022ATY Prompt: #19. A book that involves alternate reality, alternate worlds, or alternate history
Rating: ✭✭✭ (2.5)
This book had a really cool concept: parallel universe travel where you can only visit a universe in which your parallel self is dead without almost certain risk of death. Johnson uses the concept to explore how vulnerable/marginalized people are often necessary elements of capitalist systems that don't actually benefit them — in this case, the only people who can traverse between worlds are people who are quite literally vulnerable, people who are more likely to have died in as many other worlds as possible. I was really fascinated by this idea and how the book explored it, but I was unfortunately frustrated by many other aspects: I thought it was way too long, the pacing was very odd, the worldbuilding was often confusing (the parallel worlds all just have numbers assigned to them and it's hard to keep them straight) and there are holes that are never explained. So a real mixed bag, middle of the road rating.
I chose this book kind of last minute to use for this prompt, as I decided that my previous choice, The Archive of Alternate Endings fit a different prompt better. The Space Between Worlds was a great choice for this prompt though, as the alternate worlds aspect was definitely in the forefront of the story, especially the point that the parallel worlds were often very similar, but distinct in key ways that would have a kind of ripple effect.
Book 45: Scythe 11/22/2022ATY Prompt: #39. A book from the TIME list of 100 Best YA Books of All Time
Rating: ✭✭✭ (3.5)
I was pretty sure I knew what to expect going into this one, as I've read Neal Shusterman before (Unwind, when I was probably 14). And I was pretty much right! Shusterman is great at coming up with these really striking dystopian concepts and then writing books where the main appeal is that you slowly find out about how horrible the world is in lots of great detail as you read. But they tend to feel a little arbitrary, like at a certain point you're bound to think "okay, so these future people just came up with this nonsensical horrible tradition...why?" But if you can let that go, they're pretty enjoyable for the atmosphere and the philosophical questions that his worlds raise (for that purpose, I liked this one much more than Unwind, which I feel does a disservice to the pro-choice side of the abortion issue.)
I actually like list prompts, because they're often a good opportunity to motivate myself to read a book that's been languishing on my TBR for several years. That was the case with this one — I don't read YA very much anymore, but I still like to stay up to date on the ones that everyone's talking about. Scythe is often recommended by SF fans, so I'm glad to have read it.
Book 46: Commonwealth 11/28/2022ATY Prompt: #15. A book without a person on the cover
Rating: ✭✭✭✭
At the beginning of the year I set myself six authors that I had already read before who I wanted to read more from. Ann Patchett is the last author on that list and I have crossed her off! I'm really glad I chose to do that, as all of the books I read by these six authors have been lovely. I liked Commonwealth for the exact same reasons that I liked The Dutch House and I anticipate liking Patchett's other books as well. I love her writing style, her way of painting an image of a striking scene, and these meandering plots mostly about pretty mundane everyday life and the relationships between the people who live those lives. I will say I liked The Dutch House slightly better (I preferred the tighter focus on the sibling pair in that book rather than the more sprawling cast in this one), but they're still quite close.
I originally intended to use this book for the historical fiction prompt, but it turned out that this book was set in an extremely amorphous time period. It certainly is historical fiction, as it takes place over at least five decades, ending in roughly the present day, but the book literally never mentions a year or date or even any real events to orient yourself around. I think this must be a deliberate choice and I probably wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't been trying to read for this prompt! Anyway, I decided to swap it with Small Pleasures, a historical fiction book that I used for the book without a person on the cover. This is actually perfect, because it highlights a wonderfully serendipitous coincidence: that these are both historical fiction books set in the second half of the 20th century in a similar writing style AND both of them have beautiful covers that are decorated with oranges. It's perfect.
Around the Year in 52 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Burial Rites (other topics)Elena Knows (other topics)
Krik? Krak! (other topics)
The Sparrow (other topics)
Severance (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
China Miéville (other topics)Adrian Tchaikovsky (other topics)
Kazuo Ishiguro (other topics)
Olga Tokarczuk (other topics)
Ki Longfellow (other topics)
For the last two years, I have used this challenge to gain momentum. As a child, I read constantly without effort; as a young adult in a reading-heavy major in undergrad and then again in grad school, I found my reading for pleasure dropping off. Finding this challenge (although I have technically not completed it on time either year!) gave me the structure I needed to be consistently reading again - and I've loved that. The past two years, I have read over 52 books, certainly the most I've read for pleasure since I started tracking. The challenge has also encouraged me to read more broadly, something I really needed as I faced the wide, wide world of adult fiction and tried to figure out what I liked.
For the past two years, I really leaned into the challenge element: I set goals for myself, I added BIO elements, like doing multiple overlapping challenges or reading in order. I was very focused on working through my TBR, always prioritizing books I've had on there awhile over ones I had only just added. This was fun and led to some great reads and I'm glad I did it! But it also led to some other things - pushing myself to read things I was "supposed to" for whatever reason, sometimes getting stuck in particular books and being unwilling to move on until I had pushed through them.
This year, I want something different. I'll do the challenge, but the only goal I'm setting myself is to read the things I want to read when I want to read them. The things that will bring me joy. If a book is not bringing me joy, I'm going to practice setting it down and maybe picking it up later. I do have some ideas for methods for reading books that bring me joy (not goals, methods!): for example, I'd love to focus this year on reading more books from authors I've read and enjoyed in the past or reading several books by the same authors. But that's just an intention, not a plan.
I do intend to loosely pursue two other challenges: the Storygraph Genre Challenge and the Storygraph Reads the World Challenge. The Reads the World Challenge is more of a priority, as it's taking the place of the translation challenge that I completed and enjoyed a lot last year. The Genre challenges just looks fun and I figured I'd hit at least half of them without really making an effort. If I don't finish it, that's fine.
Although they're not goals, I will continue tracking some stats throughout the year, for my own curiosity:
Current Count
Total Books Read: 64
Challenge Books Read: 52
New Reads/Rereads: 60/4
Fiction/Nonfiction: 56/8
From the TBR/Newly Discovered: 38/26
Original English/Other Language: 54/10
New Author/Returning Author: 39/23
American Author/International Author: 37/25